New Thoughts (12/31/09)
For the most part, my comments are going to focus on Luke 13:24, which is a particularly key verse to come to grips with. However, before I turn to that, there is a verse from Paul’s writings that came up in the parallels which I should like to comment on. This has little to do with the subject of the passage before us, but it touches on some other discussions that I have been having of late. The verse in question is, to paraphrase it, “Word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, yet to us who are being saved it is the very power of God” (1Co 1:18).
What I particularly wish to say in regard to this is that the foolishness of the Word stops with the perishing. It is not expected to be foolishness to those who are being saved. This implies something far different than the viewpoint that supposes one must simply ‘take it on faith’. Nothing of the kind! There will be those places which require us to lean upon the Holy Spirit for understanding, yes, but never are we required to settle for a Word that makes no sense, but we’ll just smile and accept it. Never!
The Word of God is, as God Himself is, eminently intelligent. The very phrase, “Word of God”, is intended to express the Intelligent Expression of God, the coherent thought, the Truth laid out in comprehensible language. Is that Word sometimes obscure? From one perspective, yes. But, only until we avail ourselves of the tools of heaven in order to attain to understanding. Does it sometimes appear contradictory, as though God in one place says, “This is the way it is,” and in another says, “Ha! No, it’s that way”? It may appear so, but again: That contradiction we perceive is evidence not of some inconsistency on God’s part, but rather a lack of comprehension on our part. It is a strong indicator that we need to seek a more full understanding, that we need to call upon the Holy Spirit, our Tutor, to guide us into all Truth in this instance.
When I hear it suggested that somehow both contradictory meanings are simultaneously true, I am hearing the foolishness of the perishing trying to find a foothold in the house of Life. I have no patience for that. When once God has said, “Thus sayeth the Lord,” He will not, come next week, turn around and say, “Belay that!” The need to rescind and revise is evidence of the imperfect knowledge common to man. God, perfect in knowledge and abounding in Wisdom, has never once uttered a declaration He found it necessary to revoke at some later date. He says what He means, and He changeth not!
Many today do not see the importance of seeking out the Truth of Scripture. They cannot grasp why the great debates over free will versus election or whether predestination indicates that God knew beforehand what we would do or that He had so fashioned us that we would do as we do. What do these things matter, they suggest, so long as men are being saved? They matter. They matter greatly. If we serve the God of Truth, the very definition of Truth, how can we not be concerned with understanding the Truth He is? If we have taught those we lead to salvation to worship God, and in doing so, we define for them God as He is not, have we not trained them up in idolatry? Is it enough to worship something we call Jesus, or is it not rather important to worship the Jesus Who Is? If, as He has said, the time is come to worship God in Truth, ought we not to be deeply devoted to knowing God in Truth?
It is time and past time for us to accept the clear and cohesive message of Scripture. Yes, as concerns the necessaries for salvation, the message is clean and simple, and no great understanding is required. God can reach men whatever their degree of education, to be sure. But, for those with the head for it, is He not worthy of us pursuing the knowledge of God with all our mind? How dare we cast aspersions on the mental powers He has given us as reflection of His own? How dare we fall into that age-old trap? No! It’s not think or feel. It’s not mind or spirit. It’s all! Love Him with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength. Everything in! Everything working in unity. We talk enough about this at the corporate level, but why would we expect at the corporate level what we fail to pursue on the personal?
With that, I seem to have segued into the message Jesus conveys in Luke 13:24. Strive! Give it all you’ve got! This is a call to competition. Do all you can to win. Persevere, whatever temptations come your way. Keep pressing onward however strong the opposition. Strain to the uttermost! Stretch out for the goal of heaven.
How do we square this with all we have heard about avoiding ‘performance Christianity’? If we are supposed to rest in Him, what’s with the command to strive? And yet, this is what we are called to do. Like those who were rebuilding Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah, we are called to lean on God as a people incapable do doing even the least bit of work, and yet to work as though there was no God available to answer our cries. We are to work and to work hard. But, we are not to allow ourselves to fall into the foolish belief that our efforts are somehow earning us a place in heaven. We are to work as those who already know our place is prepared and waiting in heaven. Isn’t this exactly what He assures us? That place has been prepared from the foundation! Before there was an earth, before there was an Eden, our place was established, prepared and waiting. It only remains for us to reach home once again. That’s the goal. That’s the race we are in, a race towards home.
That race leads us along a very difficult road. We must expect that. Jesus goes out of His way to make certain we understand it. He calls us to take up our cross daily. Listen! Nobody hearing Him say this had any illusions about what He meant by it. The cross had one meaning and one meaning only to those people: Death. Ignominious, shameful, forsaken death. We more or less understand that, but it’s no longer visceral and immediate for us. We have embossed the cross with too much glory to really grasp the point. Even when we see the Crucifixion of Christ depicted in film, some part of us reduces the impact, because it’s only a movie. For these people, it was no movie. It was daily reality. It was Roman justice on display.
Rome. The despised overlords of the Promised Land. What did they know of justice? How could these goyem, with their pagan idols and their pagan ways be allowed to exercise rule over the keepers of God’s Holy Torah? Why was it tolerated? And, here this One Who says He is the very Son of God says we should submit to the worst, most humiliating forms of their justice? Take up the cross? Jesus! Do You realize how heavy that thing is? Do You not understand what lies at the end of that road? What are You saying?
What He is saying, is that the road we are called to race down is so difficult it is impossible. Narrow? Narrow doesn’t begin to describe it. It’s narrow enough, to be sure, because the enemies of those who race down that road press in on every side. They swing their clubs, poke their spears, slash their swords. They lay their snares and dig their pitfalls. They throw every conceivable obstacle in your path. And still, you are called to not only run down that road, but carry your cross as you go. Strive to enter!
But, listen to what Paul says about that striving effort: “This is why we labor so, because our hope is fixed firmly on the living God, the Savior of all men, particularly of believers” (1Ti 4:10). My attention is naturally drawn to the firm hope that compels us to keep going, for this is our assurance, our strength to continue. Hope: not wishful thinking, not maybe if we’re really lucky this all works out. No! Hope for the Christian is certainty. He has prepared a place for us! He has saved us! He has redeemed us, and put His seal to our adoption papers. There’s no maybe about this thing. It’s not a question of if we make it. It’s a matter of when.
The only reason we have for such confidence is the sure knowledge that it’s really none of our own doing, however much we may strive. Striving, or the failure to strive, is not the determinant. Christ is the determinant. His call, His choosing, His willing and working in us: this is our confidence. It cannot be said often enough: If my arrival in the kingdom of heaven depends on my own persistence, then I can just stop right now and throw in the towel. I’m not going to make it anyway, and putting myself through the agony of trying makes no sense at all. But, knowing that my arrival is in His hands – wholly and solely in His hands! I am assured of making my way, for by His own right arm, He will do it! This is my story. It’s the only story worth hearing.
Before I let go of that verse from 1Timothy, though, I have to accept the closing clause. God is the “Savior of all men, particularly of believers.” How am I to take that? Does this mean that everybody gets in, after all? It cannot. For, as I have already noted, God’s Truth does not allow of logical contradiction. If Jesus says in this present passage that many will not be able to enter, that indeed, the bulk enter the gate of destruction, then I cannot reasonably suppose that He also indicates that even though so many rush down the highway to hell, He snaps them all up just before they plunge into the Lake of Fire. Look! He is saying right here that there are those who are going to be cast out of the kingdom. Do we suppose He plans to do that just so He can rush out and play catch, bringing them back? What would be the point? God is not a pointless God.
So, in what way ‘Savior of all men’, Paul? How am I to lay hold of this? That it is of God’s Truth, I must accept, for it is in His Word, from the pen of His Apostle. But, I must understand it as part of the whole, as informed by the full message of the Scriptures. I must allow the more clear statements of the Word to explain to me this which seems obscure. I must avail myself of the Holy Spirit to explain to me what seems inexplicable.
To this end, praise be to God, I am not required to depend on some sort of immediate, revelatory voice from on high. For He has seen to it that we who live in this time are provided with such a wealth of knowledge from throughout the years of Church history that we are truly without excuse. So, let me avail myself of some of these commentaries I have largely set aside while going through the Gospels. Barnes offers a few possibilities after noting, as have I, that it cannot mean everybody gets saved. Even the sentence itself makes no sense if taken in that light. So, he suggests that as God preserves all men in some degree, He might be considered their Savior at least so far as dangers like war and famine are concerned. I would have to note, though, that even here, He does not rescue all. War and famine would have no power to upset us if all were saved from their ravages. On the other hand, the God of Providence does indeed provide for all men, giving them food every bit as much as He does the birds and other animals. That might work.
Another possibility that Barnes puts forth is the unlimited provision of salvation. In other words, God has not placed restrictions based on race, class, sex or any other human distinction upon the availability of salvation. The sole restriction, we might say, is His choice, but that choice is without bias. This, too, seems a bit unsatisfactory to me.
Clarke sees in this the truth that Salvation is provided for the whole of the human race, freely offered. Yet, it is only actually given to those who believe in Christ. All may believe, he proposes, and therefore, all who perish do so by their own fault. Other commentaries pursue a similar explanation: Nobody need despair of being a candidate for salvation. Christ gave Himself for all, so any can trust and be saved. Another commenter, J. J. Wray, suggests that we might understand this as equivalent to a physician assigned to some particular district. Said physician is unlikely to heal every person in that district, but “his commission includes them all.” Certain among those in his area may choose not to visit his offices. Others may decide to go elsewhere. But, the key factor is that if they will come to him they may, and he will treat them. I will note that this again puts the final effort of salvation back in the hands of man.
JF&B offer a more satisfying explanation by far. In this present life, God works as Preserver and Benefactor to all of mankind, although in this limited and temporal fashion (as Barnes had also noted). Thus, Paul’s statement becomes more of a, “how much more, then!” when applied to believers and their eternal condition. Calvin follows a similar line, noting that the term Savior is used in a more general sense, allowing the two clauses to present us with an argument from the lesser to the greater. Well and good! This, then, makes good sense to me, and still fits together with the greater scope of the Word.
So, then, back to Luke 13:24. The closing clause of that statement Jesus makes should put an end to any supposition on our part that the striving He calls us to is a matter of earning our way in. Many will seek to enter, and will not prevail. They don’t have the strength. They will not be able to overcome the temptations of this life. Now, I want to note something about this that we really must get through our heads. These people are what we would call seekers. They are the ones all those so-called seeker-friendly churches are setting themselves to attract. But, what is said? They can’t do it. They are trying. They have, dare I say it, chosen of their own free will to enter the kingdom of God. And yet, the Son of God says they don’t get in. What does this do to the free will argument? It seems to me that it takes a sledge hammer to that argument! These folks, Jesus says, are seeking to get in. They have found that narrow gate with its rough road, and they are trying their best to gain entrance, but they’re not going to make it.
What? How can that be? Isn’t He the one who said, “Seek and you shall find”? Didn’t He say, “knock and the door shall be opened”? How is it, then, that He is now saying, “knock and shout all you want, but the Lord of the house will simply tell you to go away”? But, the key, of course, is right there: He doesn’t know you, nor do you know Him. Oh, yes, you’ve listened to the tapes. You’ve been fed from His table on occasion. But, you don’t know Him. You’ve perhaps sat in church every week, drinking in the worship music, fed to the full on teachings from some of the best of His servants. But, you’ve never come to know Him. Why? What prevented you? You were seeking, after all. Why else would you be here Sunday after Sunday? OK, there may be other reasons, but let’s assume the best.
The summation is that it lies with Him to decide, not you. None come to the Father except through the Son, and none come to the Son unless the Father calls them. That’s one of the particulars that makes the narrow gate so hard to locate. Unless the call comes, you can go poking around for it all you like, but you’ll never stumble across it. There is no stumbling across salvation. God is purposeful.
Let me just balance that message out a bit, lest we leave a gap to claim God is not just in His ways. I will put it bluntly: those who put on such a show of effort towards gaining themselves salvation are not really interested in righteousness or godliness. Nor are they truly pursuing salvation. They can call themselves seekers, but they’re not seeking God. They’re simply seeking escape. They want a god of their own fashioning and will never accept the God Who Is. They want salvation on their terms, but God says there is only the One Way. It is no capriciousness on God’s part that He rejects such so-called seekers. If they had truly been seeking Him, He would have been found. If they had truly been seeking Him, it would have been because He was calling out to them.
Those who try to achieve righteousness by their own strength and on their own terms cannot prevail. Their own strength is nothing. Their own terms are inevitably a standard so far below the true standard of righteousness as to be pretty much invisible. It’s like hopping over a line drawn in the sand and claiming that you’ve achieved mightily on the high jump. You can pretend all you like, but it doesn’t change reality. You’ve done nothing.
This is the human measure of righteousness that Jesus has been doing away with in recent studies. The rich young ruler could only claim compliance to the Law by having reduced the Law to the most achievable of standards. By limiting “thou shalt not kill thy fellow” to the physical act of murder, he can claim compliance. But, when, as Jesus taught, the Law is allowed to expand to its full extent, and he must also consider every thought and word? Never call another a fool? Who can manage it? No. Compliance is far beyond our capacity. It requires God. Apart from Him we can do nothing. Apart from Him we cannot successfully do anything of worth, anything good. We can only sin. We can choose all we like, but the only choice we shall ever pursue is the choice to sin. To choose goodness is beyond us. Until we come to the place of walking humbly with God, we can never hope to be the least bit like God. We don’t have the moral strength.
This truth lies in the example of the patriarchs and the prophets that Jesus mentions towards the end of this lesson. The summation of the patriarchs is that the Promise comes to those God chooses. It is not passed along in the fashions that men devise. We can have all our systems of inheritance, but God is free to ignore those systems and choose His own. Indeed, the whole record of Scripture seems to be a non-stop listing of God choosing the unexpected. Abraham and Sarah contrive to bring about the birth of Ishmael, going off having only half understood the promise God had given them. Well, He said we would have a son, and He doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it. I guess He wants us to see to it. That worked out real well, didn’t it? God had not chosen the fruit of their impatience. His purpose was elsewhere, in the impossible son.
Likewise, when Jacob was born, the natural line of blessing would have been to the firstborn which was, despite Jacob’s attempts to shift the order, Esau. Esau was secure in the knowledge that as firstborn, he would get the bulk of Jacob’s heritage. It was his right, after all. Tradition! But, God had other plans in mind. Yes, as the eyes see it, it was the connivance of Jacob and his mother that led to the shift of fortunes, but fortune had nothing to do with it. Providence was in control.
We see it again with the sons of Joseph, where God again rejects the firstborn in favor of the second. We see it in His choice of so many who had no cause to be chosen. Harlots and pagans, insignificant shepherds, right down to a poor betrothed woman from the hinterlands of northern Israel: these are the ones God had purposed to be the line of Promise, not those who prided themselves as being the clear choices. The Promise ever comes to those God chooses, not to those who choose themselves.
That is rather the point to the “I don’t know you.” Whatever you may know of Me, you don’t know Me, and more importantly, I don’t know you. The NET offers a footnote to this saying that, “The issue is not familiarity (with Jesus' teaching) or even shared activity (eating and drinking with him), but knowing Jesus.” But, really, even that doesn’t truly state the case. The issue is not us knowing Him. The issue is, does He know us? That’s the decisive measure. If He knows us, we will know Him. He will see to it. Because He knows us and we know Him, we will be glad to strive towards that door that leads to home, to Him. Because we are known, we will be inclined to have oil prepared, to be ready and waiting to hear His call. We are waiting. We are not anxiously waiting, for we know we have no cause to be anxious. We are confidently waiting, knowing that His call will come at the due time, and that He shall see to it that we are prepared for Him as we ought to be. He has presented us with the wedding clothes. He shall surely see to it that we have them on when the time comes!
Now, there is a bit of nuance to that matter of ‘I don’t know where you are from,’ at least as certain of the lexicons suggest. It is an indication of household. Whose house are you? Of what tribe? It’s not Mine! The Amplified Bible chooses to bring out this aspect of, “not Mine.” That is, after all, the critical distinction. In the end, there are two families on the earth: “Mine” and “not Mine”. But, isn’t that an interesting comment for the Lord to make to a people so caught up in the importance of lineage! Everything, so far as they were concerned, hinged on being able to trace one’s parentage back up to Abraham. Tribe and clan were everything. Being a son in the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was everything. And at the end of it all, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob says, “Nope. Don’t know what tribe you’re from, but it’s not one of Mine.” That should shake any confidence we have in the flesh loose once and for all!
Hear how that echoes what was said before! The Forerunner came, announcing the arrival of the King, and he had a message for the self-righteous: “Bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance. Don’t think you can rest on the fact that Abraham is your father. I tell you, God could raise up children to Abraham from these stones if need be” (Lk 3:8). Pride and repentance cannot co-exist. You can’t claim to have repented of your sins, and yet think you’ve earned God’s favor. To think the latter is to have failed to comprehend the depth of your sins. If you haven’t seen the depth of your sins, how can you have repented of them?
Listen! For these, the issue was pride of lineage and nation. For us, the problem has not subsided. We, too, have our pride of nation. How many have asserted that America can’t fail because it is the land God has chosen? Learn from the history God provides! England thought the same thing before America ever was. Israel thought the same thing. Repeatedly! The Temple! The Temple! God would never abandon that. We can do as we will, and He will never forsake us. But, God answers, “I can raise up a new batch of followers from these rocks, if that’s what it takes.” Nothing’s changed. You think your denomination secures your future? You think your specific doctrines determine your salvation? Nothing of the sort! It is Me or it is nothing. If I AM is not causing you to stand, then you have no hope of standing.
Ah, but let us leave this on a strong note of confidence! The firm foundation of God stands! It is unshakable! And that foundation bears this seal: “The Lord knows His own” (2Ti 2:19). That is my only hope, and it is the only hope I shall ever need. The Lord knows His own, and He is pleased to assure that His own know Him. He gives us confidence to persevere. He gives us strength to strive. He gives us entrance through that narrow gate, and He sees to it that we remain on the road that leads to it. It is all in Him that I am saved, and this is my greatest joy. Though I am found unfaithful, He is faithful. What He has begun He will complete, and He has begun a very good work in me. He knows His own. When the day finally comes and I am finally at the gate, I shall find it open. I need have no fear that He shall say to me, “I don’t know you.” He knows my name! It is written there in the Book of Life.
Blessed Redeemer! That You have known me, called me by name, what more could I ever desire? Wherefore shall I be anxious and afraid, when You have said, “You are Mine”? Yes, but let me never take that joy for granted. Grant to me the endurance, Lord, to strive as You call me to strive. Power, my God, to stretch forth towards the goal with all that is in me! That I ask, and I ask it knowing it is Your pleasure to grant it to me. Thank You, bless You, let Your glory shine out through this life as You sovereignly move upon me to bring the transformation You desire. Find me willing, Lord. But, find me.
